


Thunderstruck

by IonFusion



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Baker Kakashi, Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/M, Female Umino Iruka, Firebender Kakashi, He Learned it from Iruka, Iruka is a menace, Naruto is a menace, Parent Hatake Kakashi, Parent Umino Iruka, Waterbender Iruka, so much world building
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-10
Updated: 2020-07-10
Packaged: 2021-03-05 05:20:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,227
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25179085
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IonFusion/pseuds/IonFusion
Summary: The first time he sees her his world ends - and a new one begins.Title is taken from the AC/DC song. Please give it at least one listen bc I used it to inspire how I see this version of Iruka: wild and playful and sassy :)Fic also inspired by What You Knead written by AgentMalkere. Please read their fic ^.^This fic is for the Festival AU AND the Shop AU prompts for KakaIru Nine Weeks of Summer ((Week Two))
Relationships: Haruno Sakura & Uchiha Sasuke & Uzumaki Naruto, Hatake Kakashi & Uchiha Sasuke, Hatake Kakashi & Yamato | Tenzou, Hatake Kakashi/Umino Iruka, Umino Iruka & Uzumaki Naruto
Comments: 9
Kudos: 98
Collections: Nine Weeks of Summer 2020





	Thunderstruck

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [What You Knead](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17401478) by [AgentMalkere](https://archiveofourown.org/users/AgentMalkere/pseuds/AgentMalkere). 



> In a universe where Konoha is the capital of the Fire Nation and the Hokage therefore the Firelord, pretty much all of the original premise of Avatar: The Last Airbender has been disregarded, and Naruto is of course born the Avatar after the death of Hatake Sakumo, we set the scene in an Earth Kingdom village during the time of a festival. The Four Nations live together - mostly - harmoniously, and Kakashi, a Fire Nation soldier (retired), is in charge of the Petting Zoo AND a bakery stall. Iruka is a fire-eater/juggler from the Southern Water Tribe. She was trained to be a shinobi by her parents and raised in Konoha. When they are killed in the Kyuubi Attack along with Minato and Kushina, friends of her parents, she snatches the child up and runs with him before anyone else can say ‘no’ (bc Kakashi is too young to care for him, bc Jiraiya isn’t in the village, bc the Kyuubi - a psychotic firebender that specifically targeted Konoha - is suspected of being under someone else’s direction and Naruto might be a target). So she runs away, manages to survive on the streets - until she stumbles on a travelling carnival that agrees to take them both in. It’s while they are there that they discover that Naruto is the next Avatar. The carnival, by now quite fond of Iruka and her charge, helps keep Naruto a secret while also providing him the training he requires as he seeks out his destiny. They travel the world, and end up performing in the Earth Nation village during the carnival. Enter Chaos.

The moment he lays eyes on her, Hatake Kakashi is enthralled. 

She moves with grace - obviously trained - and with confidence; this woman, this vision, is very much in control of her body as she swallows the flaming torch with seemingly no effort whatsoever. 

Kakashi watches from his seat at his own stall as much of the captivating performance as the undulating crowd will allow. 

“See something you like?”

He shrugs one shoulder casually - as if it doesn’t hurt to tear even a fraction of his attention from the performer up on the stage. 

Yamato, Kakashi’s friend and fellow retiree, chuckles and nudges him with an elbow. “You should be paying attention to your own customers, senpai.”

It’s with a put-upon sigh that Kakashi turns to look at his companion.  _ Yes _ , Kakashi should be watching the kids playing with his dogs and other assorted animals in the Petting Zoo to his left,  _ yes _ he should probably be trying harder to sell the various baked goods from his bakery in his  _ actual _ stall, but - but that  _ woman _ …

“The festival is to last two more days,” Yamato sighs. “You’ll get a chance to talk to her.”

He raises the eyebrow perched above his eyepatch. “Can you  _ promise _ that, my dear kohai?” It’s rhetorical, and he knows that  _ Yamato  _ knows this. Yamato, who should be manning his cabbage cart to Kakashi’s right. 

Ah, yes. The joys of early retirement: one of them opens a bakery, and the other becomes a cabbage farmer. 

(What strange lives they lead, Kakashi sometimes thinks, but then he pictures the raven-haired boy that shares his home with him, the same raven-haired boy he rescued from a potential life of self-destruction and hatred.

When he sees Sasuke smirk without cruel intent, when the boy he now calls his own rolls his eyes fondly at Kakashi’s antics, he thinks that the strangeness is worth it.)

They had retired from the Fire Nation Army when Kakashi was 21 - months after Uchiha Sasuke’s older brother and idol, Itachi, massacred their entire clan and fled the country. Kakashi took Sasuke with him and ran (legally) for the Earth Kingdom where his mother’s blood came from; Yamato came along in an act of solidarity. 

Together the three of them built a life here in the tiny coastal town of Kiryo and had lived peacefully and happily for the last six years. 

_ Too _ peacefully, it would seem, because now Kakashi’s charcoal eye cannot leave the visage of the beauty now - Wait, is she  _ looking at him _ ?!

His heart completely misses a beat and makes his chest burn most welcomely. Before he’s even quite aware of what he’s doing, Kakashi is standing and weaving through the crowd up to the edge of the stage; her eyes never leave his. 

Whoever she is, she’s beautiful. Her skin is tawny and perfectly clear, and her hair tumbles in chestnut waves down her back and over her shoulders. She wears yellow trousers, a green tube-top wrap, and a coy smile beneath eyes that dazzle Kakashi with their depth and myriad of colors: russet, umber, caramel, cinnamon, amber. Belatedly he notices the unbroken scar that stretched from the inside edges of her cheekbones across her nose, but it only serves to wrinkle her nose further with that smoldering smirk she teases him with. 

“Hey, handsome,” she calls, curling one finger at him. “Wanna be my lucky volunteer?”

_ I’ll be your lucky  _ **_anything_ ** , he almost blurts but manages to swallow  _ that _ particular response and replace it with pink-tinged cheeks and a meek nod. What the  _ hell _ ? 

Her lips stretch into a blinding - exhilarating - grin, and she holds out a hand to him. Kakashi takes it and is momentarily surprised by the strength he can feel coiling in her arm as she tugs him up onto the stage with her leaving them standing almost inappropriately close. 

“Ready for me t’ show you a good time?” 

His cheeks are burning and his breath catching in his lungs. “ _ Yes _ ,” Kakashi gasps, because how can he  _ refuse _ ? 

If it’s possible, her grin  _ grows _ . “Good.” 

And then she’s whirling flaming torches around them, one in each of her hands, brushing sensually up against his body. Her breath ghosts against the pale skin directly below his right eye, lips so close that he can feel her smug simper. 

“Feelin’ a little warm, pretty boy?” she breathes, and Kakashi’s heart actually  _ shudders _ . 

_ Damn _ . 

It takes absolutely every ounce of training in him to grin through the flush he knows his visible skin still carries and goad, “What will you do if I say no?”

He can  _ feel _ her lips stretch in a satisfied smile against his cheek- 

And then she’s stepping back and throwing her torches high in the air before her arms and fingers contort to summon a massive water dragon from barrels of water placed strategically around the stage. 

Tendrils of water catch the torches in a way that keeps them lit, and Kakashi glimpses a shock of yellow and orange and blue toss more flaming torches at them both. The performer effortlessly and deftly directs her water dragon to loop through the air and catch the other torches and set them spinning much to the awe of her audience (Kakashi can’t take his eyes off of her. Is this what it feels like to die happy?)

She leans in, hands occupied with the show - but the rest of her attention on  _ him _ . “Hot  _ now _ ?” she murmurs against his jaw; his knees almost give out right then.

The woman laughs brightly and leans back, conducting the dragon into moving faster and faster and  _ faster _ , dancing around them as if they are a single celestial body, a star in the night sky - a  _ shooting _ star, because Kakashi feels like he’s falling and burning and  _ wanting _ . 

He watches her movements, follows what she’s doing and deducts in a detached manner the finale of her little show. Through the haze in his mind and despite the heat in his veins, Kakashi’s prodigious mind presents him with his own chance to impress. 

A grin sneaks across his lips, his right eye pressing into an eye-smile. It’s his turn to lean unabashedly closer - only  _ his  _ hands are free, and they rest on her hips and tug her in close enough that he is breathing hotly right against her ear. She gasps in surprise but does not stop him, almost melts into his hold. “ _ Of course _ .” 

The water dragon encircles them while the flaming torches keep cavorting and spinning in dizzying patterns. Kakashi watches the world blur at the edges of his vision, but the woman, the focus of his attention - the center of his  _ universe _ \- remains crystal clear. He can see the exact moment she catches on to what he wants to do (the steadily-growing electric hum around them might also be a dead giveaway), because her smile becomes approving and mildly sadistic. 

“On the count of three?” she asks cheerfully and presses closer.

He grins beneath his facemask. “On three.”

Their counting is silent, marked in the fluttering of her eyelashes and their shared breaths- 

And the world is exploding in color and thunder and fire.

The water dragon crackles with lightning and bursts like a bubble, showering the stage and crowd in a gentle mist even as Kakashi keeps the lightning carefully dancing and dissipating above their heads. 

When it’s safe, he lowers his hands, and the woman steps lightly away. “Iruka,” she murmurs heatedly, eyes like the fire she cannot  _ bend _ but dances with just the same, and he knows that’s her name. 

“Kakashi,” he breathes, and is that a flush creeping up her cheeks?

They step farther away from each other, Kakashi returning to his stall where business begins to pick up after his little display. 

Yamato looks unimpressed. “Really? Really, senpai?”

Kakashi grins unashamedly, chest and stomach warm and tingly with butterflies, and shrugs, “Why not?” 

At that moment Naruto comes running up to them, Sasuke not far behind. “That was  _ awesome _ !” the blond cheers excitedly as he skips in circles around Kakashi. He’s dressed in orange shorts and a sky-blue top that matches his bright eyes, and Kakashi darts a hand out to ruffle his hair.

“Do you have to do that every year?” Sasuke grumbles as he walks up to them, but his attitude belies the proud gleam in his sable eyes. 

Yamato grunts. “If he didn’t, he wouldn’t be Hatake Kakashi.”

Naruto’s eyes widen comically. “He’d be an  _ alien _ ?!”

Sasuke rolls his eyes and smacks his companion on the back of his head. “No, you dobe. Why don’t you go find Sakura so we can terrorize the visiting merchants?”

“Sakura-chan’s helpin’ Tsunade-obaasan in the medic pavilion,” the blond pouts, then, unable to stay unhappy for long, brightens and exclaims, “But Sakura-chan said she’d meet us here real soon, dattebayo!” 

“ _ Must _ you three insist on running around like hellions?” Yamato despairs. 

“Maa,” Kakashi protests mildly, “it’s not like they ever  _ hurt _ anyone. Let the kids have a little fun, ne?”

His kohai sputters indignantly (it’s mostly for show; Kakashi knows that Yamato secretly takes great pleasure in the suffering the three kids inflict on their unsuspecting victims) just as a warm body presses up against his back and arms wrap around his shoulders. 

“You kiddos behaving?” a voice grins around his shoulder. Naruto whoops and laughs, and even Sasuke smirks. 

Kakashi turns his head and pulls down his mask just enough to steal a kiss from the love of his life. 

“You were amazing up there, Ru-chan,” he smiles against her lips. 

She laughs and shifts until they are face-to-face (all the better to kiss him). “So were you, koishi.” Her right hand drops to tangle its fingers with his left; a warm feeling spreads through him when he hears the gentle  _ snick _ of their wedding bands clicking together (worn on their non-dominant hands  _ just _ for that effect). 

“Ew,” Naruto grimaces beside them “Like, I know you’re married’n all, Ru-kaasan, Kaka-sensei, but that’s  _ gross _ .”

Both Iruka and Kakashi laugh and rest their foreheads against each other before pulling apart till only their hands connect them.

Yamato rolls his eyes again - and catches the pink-haired girl that flings herself at him. 

“Aw, but Yama-nii!” Haruno Sakura whines, and they both smile at each other. After Yamato had helped Sakura stand up to her bullies, he had taught her how to fight. They didn’t bend the same element (Yamato could bend water, specializing in the water within plants, and Sakura was an earthbender), but Sakura had found an earthbending teacher in Senju Tsunade, the foremost medical professional in the entire Earth Kingdom - and a devastating former frontline fighter for the Fire Nation. 

“Why don’t you and your heathen friends go terrorize someone your own size,” the younger man chastises mockingly, and Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto gladly scamper off to do just that.

“They’re going to set something on fire, yanno,” Iruka comments lightly. 

Kakashi shrugs and sits down, lightly tugging Iruka down into his lap. “So? Between the three of them, I think they might be able to contain the fire well enough until you or my diligent kohai can put it out for them.”

He can’t see it, but he knows she rolls her eyes. Yamato sighs long-sufferingly and returns to his own stall. 

Together husband and wife sit in the waning light, their world lit warmly by flickering lanterns, taking in the lively festival scene. 

“You really did do well out there,” Kakashi murmurs. 

Iruka twists back to beam at him. “Saa, you weren’t too bad yourself, Ka-koishi - even if you never let me know what you’re going to do this year.”

“It’s a point of pride,” he shoots back. “Besides,” the ex-officer adds more honestly, fingers of his free hand caressing the bare skin of her arm, “I like being able to impress you.”

She raises an eyebrow but leans into his touch. “That’s a tall order, yanno.”

He laughs lightly. Boy,  _ did _ he know - but it was worth it every time. 

“You’re worth the effort.” 

His words are quiet, barely a breath on the wind, but Iruka has had four years to learn how to hear him anyway. Her eyes - warmed to honey in the firelight - soften, and she leans back against his chest, face turned into his neck. “ _ I love you _ ,” Hatake Iruka whispers in response.

Kakashi first laid eyes on the woman in his arms five years ago in the same manner as they portrayed tonight. He had seen her - and fallen in love. In love with her beauty, in love with her spirit, with her passion and skill and heart of gold. Now, every year since they met, they reenacted that first night (with Kakashi surprising her with a different ending every time - but always a  _ happy _ ending, his own silent promise of all the many happily-ever-afters in store for them and their make-shift family). 

The silver-haired firebender nuzzles his nose against the side of her head, breathes in deeply of smoke and ocean, and doesn’t even try to calm the heart thumping in his chest. 

He’s been thunderstruck.

* * *

**Omake**

A loud  _ boom _ echoes through the cooling night air, the sound accompanied by smoke and sparks and the laughter of three distinct voices.

Iruka and Kakashi burst into laughter, already knowing what will happen next.

… 

“ _ MY CABBAGES!!! _ ”

**Author's Note:**

> In this universe, the Hidden Villages are villages within the different elemental nations. Each Hidden Village provides a high percentage of each nation’s military force. Konoha is, of course, within the Fire Nation. Iwa, Ame, and Suna are all in different parts of the Earth Kingdom. Wave takes the place of the Southern Water Tribe, and Kiri is the Northern Water Tribe. My biggest problem was with figuring where Kumo would be and how the Air Nomads figured in. The result, since Kumo is the Village Hidden in the Clouds: Kumo was originally founded by Air Nomads who didn’t want to live in the temples as monks. Instead, they built a village of their own on an island off the Fire Nation’s coast (which would help account for Kumo’s shinobi’s stronger predilection to lightning affinities). 
> 
> Naruto is the current Avatar. However, I played a little fast and loose with canon: in this universe, the next Avatar isn’t always born the same day/month/year that the previous one dies. The universe chooses the next Avatar based on the life of the previous (what mistakes were made, what flaws they had) so that each successive Avatar can continue to not only build on the work of their past selves but do so in an innovative and progressive way. Hatake Sakumo was the previous Avatar. I know, I know. Why not Minato or Kushina? I could have just as easily made up something to explain why Naruto would be born the Avatar before the previous one was actually dead, but I wanted to try and stick to canon lore. Of all the characters to die before Minato and Kushina, my preferred choices for an Avatar were Obito, Sakumo, Tobirama, Hashirama, and Mito. However, Hashirama, Tobirama, and Mito I think all have the wrong affinities at that point in the cycle (Hashirama would have been born as earth and Tobirama and Mito as water). That leaves Sakumo and Obito, both who have predominant fire affinities. Since it’s been confirmed that each Avatar is chosen to make up for the faults of the previous, it would make sense to me that Sakumo would be the last Avatar - and it parallels in many ways the succession of Aang from Avatar Roku.  
> Fun facts: Yamato/Tenzou learned how to control his abilities from the Swamp Tribe, and the Kyoshi Warriors are now an elite branch of samurai in the Iron Region - which includes the Island of Kyoshi and Gaoling, Toph’s original hometown - of the Earth Kingdom.
> 
> Kakashi and Yamato retired from the Fire Nation Army after the Uchiha Massacre, and Kakashi took Sasuke with them when they settled in the Earth Kingdom. There Kakashi found a healthy coping mechanism in baking and opened a bakery which he used to help support himself and his new ward. Yamato became a farmer - who actually grows many things, including other plants, but during this particular fic it’s cabbage season :)


End file.
